The Final Frontier

Space. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages....

Stories are always about telling others something they don't know, refreshing their memories, conveying emotions and ideas that haven't been thought about for quite some time, if at all. They're about entertaining others, about keeping histories alive, and about teaching a lesson. That's what this is about: sharing our own experiences to those younger than us, to better prepare them.

When I first heard about our Service Learning component, I was dismayed. I was terrible over phones and didn't interact well with children at all. I remembered being the age that we would be targetting well (5th-8th grade); I wasn't motivated in the slightest towards any kind of post-high school study, let alone a specific few jobs. How was I going to pull this off?

After some discussion and checking around, I managed to find someone I could easily worth with, someone that wouldn't cause friction while working: my sister. She was young, almost beyond the age bracket for the project, but willing enough; the first assignment caught her fancy. She'd done much crafting when she was younger and continued doing artsy projects throughout elementary school. We got started and began working together.

After gathering some magazines, we got to work on a collage. It was more work than I thought it would be; her choice "careers" of teacher, musician, and veterinarian were harder to find in the magazines I had collected than I thought. We spent a lot of time on the collage, finding pictures not only in the magazines but online, having to be creative and look for images that would work well on paper.

As we cut out the images and began to glue them to the posterboard for the collage, my sister had an inspirational moment. Although the entire posterboard was nearly covered by images, it was plain; there were only pictures, nothing else. She grabbed some kind of paint-in-a-tube set and we got to work using them to create words, borders, and little things that spiced up the collage. Her excitement was overwhelming.

What astounded me the most, however, wasn't the first project or her creativity during it; it was has she listened when we went over things, how dedicated a young child can be at times. I'm sure she'll soon let these incidents slip her mind, forgotten for many years; she's still young, and college and careers are far off. But I believe she'll one day remember these times and the feelings she had during the projects, and perhaps she'll remember this story, the experiences we conveyed and created together, and work towards those dreams she shared.

World Issue

The world is a very vast place; it harbors all sorts of ideas, opinions, contradicting modes of thought. Often these come into conflict with each other. Sometimes they merge and become better together, such as with design philosophies, programming paradigms, and work methods in the industrial sector. Other times they react violently, causing a long-lasting human reaction of war, hatred, and distrust that spans generations. Sometimes these differences are grand issues and worthy of a war, such as that of World War II's participants: one side believed in superiority, subjugation, and various forms of socialism and imperialism. The other side, for the most part, believed otherwise, seeking for freedom to do as they wished and defend that which they desired.

Today, there are many issues about, causing splits in societies around the world. Some are old, worn out issues that have already polarized all that can be, like those of abortion, stem cells, nuclear energy, and the like. One that I care about in particular, however, does not take such a prominent spotlight. I speak of Space Exploration. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, father of astronautics, once said "The Earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot eternally live in a cradle." He couldn't be more right. The Earth is a great place; it has housed the only form of life we know for billions of years, is a vast and diverse greenhouse, and is one thing nearly every human has in common.

But what happens in 10 years? In 100? 1000? Will we really still be content to stay here, burying our heads in the sand? I was a scifi child, brought up watching Star Wars, Star Trek, Star Gate, Star Anything-that-sounds-scifi-ish. When I read about the history of Space Flight, I felt excited. We had gone from barely being about to launch rockets and satellites to manned landings on the moon in a decade. I read about exotic propulsion systems that would enable Mars landings and remote probing of far off objects. Then came disappointment. In the 40 years since the Space Race, we hadn't returned to the moon; we had abandoned it. When I read that NASA was attempting to return in a span of 15 years, I felt annoyed; how could this be the time frame 40 years later? I soon realized that, through a complex series of convoluted chains of cause and effect, one thing limited exploration of space, the push towards the future:

Conflict.

No, not productive conflict between two competing ideas. Deadly, ridiculous conflict between ideas and peoples that at times are nearly identical and at others completely different. People are all to eager to fight others, attack others, ignore others, hate others for any kind of difference. Individually, it's quite easy to accept others for who they are, regardless of any difference. On a larger scale, however, it seems to become impossible. The ridiculous wars that have been waged throughout history and the modern age dishearten me; sometimes I wish Space Flight had been more fully developed simply so that we could leave it all behind. If only people could stop being selfish and unnaccepting, we might be traveling through the stars, doing something truly amazing instead of getting mud and blood on our hands in lands we hardly care about for ideas we fool ourselves into believing.

Ideas are great, differences bring forth innovation and advancement. But closemindedness counters that advancement. If we could work together and pool our resources, so much could be done. No matter what the issue appears to be, the real problem is that inability to work together. Be more openminded. Try things, accept others. Mature your thoughts. The Earth may be a cradle, but that does not mean we should behave as children.

UNO Experience: Dorm Chapter

When I moved into the dorms, I admit: I was a little nervous. After all, I've never been quite the outgoing guy; the last time I'd slept over somewhere else was years ago, and the last time I had spent a long time with others was...never. It wasn't nervousness about being alone that nagged at me, it was my manner of living. For example, I never really cared what kind of sheets I slept on, so my parents provided me with whatever we had: generally some flowery pattern of some kind. That was fine for me, but would it make me seem strange to others?

I spent a decent amount of time trying to compensate for that. I'd bring clothing I could sleep in and still appear decently respectable, not that stuff I still wore because I was too lazy to go to the store and buy newer stuff. I'd make sure my shirts weren't too small or ridiculously ragged. I made sure that I had everything I needed as well. Went through all my typical motions of my daily routines to make sure I had everything. After packing up, I felt confident...but still feared leaving something behind.

It turns out that I had only left behind a jump drive. My mother delivered it the next morning (thank goodness too, it had my paper on it), and I began to try out dorm living for real. In order to simulate having more than one or two classes a day, there were many activities planned, which made it difficult to juggle exactly what to do at what time. It was very tempting at times to sit around and play Galaga and Spades (I was taught how to play, and spent at least 6 hours playing) than do my homework. I had to shift between mindsets, and at one point got up early to compensate for my lack of dedication.

I got to know a lot of people over that week, and they were all great. Being forced to live in the same place as 30 other people really gets you to interact. Even a closet nerd like myself, staying in my basement and out of the sun for long periods of time, managed to befriend many and forge new friendships. The RAs were great as well, helping us out when we needed it, playing us in Ping Pong, and in cards. They helped us learn what it was like, and made sure we floated instead of sinking.

All in all, it was a great time, and though some activities were less than beneficial to free time, they were all worthwhile, and I almost wish I could stay at the dorm longer. If we stayed longer, though, I have a sneaking suspicion that there would be many more activities....

Week 1

Being a high school student, the college experience was very new and strange. In high school, you're still very controlled. Everything is done for you. You just mindlessly go to classes and do as the teacher says. At the very end, you might get some busywork homework to do after the school day ends. It's structured.

Here at UNO, in the Summer Scholars program, classes are not. Although we technically only have 1 real class to attend, we have another "class" in the morning before it to help us learn about college, how to get into colleges, and study groups for the class that we are enrolled in. This allows us as high school students to experience getting from class to class in a college setting. This, along with the very nature of the class, campus, and student body, really impresses upon me the freedom and loose nature of the environment here.

My class, Autobiographical Writing, contains no busywork like one would find in high school; it's discussion, learning, and then the class is over. No boring worksheets, no little excercises, and for this class in particular, no passive learning; this class is interactive, and discussions really feel free and as though students guide them along with the instructor. Between classes, we can go anywhere on the campus to grab food, to study, to chat, to do whatever we really feel like. It's a great feeling.

After our class is over, it's lunch time, and I got to experience the on campus food court for the first time. I must say, the food is much, much more enjoyable than that given at high schools. There's a large choice, and you feel like you're no longer in the little leagues, with those second-rate imitations of food. There's real pizza, there's real chicken, there's real soda. The price is a bit more, but it's still managable. If you don't want to spend the money there, you can go off campus and eat elsewhere as well. The college is open and free, a great place to learn.

I think it's quite obvious; I've enjoyed my first week.